Problem Solution Approach

Posted in Marketing and Strategy Terms, Total Reads: 1639

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Definition: Problem Solution Approach

This is a kind of marketing strategy where a salesperson first tries to identify a consumer’s problem and then attempts to provide a solution using the product or the service to be sold. This kind of marketing strategy is at the core of customer centric firms.

A famous example of this approach is that of Best Buy Co. Inc., a US based electronic goods retail chain. Best Buy, in 2005, changed its marketing strategy from good customer service to customer centricity. This was done in order to differentiate itself from the competition posed by upstart retail chains like Walmart. For this purpose, Best Buy segmented its customer base into 7 psychographic segments.

Its sales force, also known as Geek Squad, was trained in a way to understand which segment a customer belonged to. A sales person would thus identify the problem of that customer and show the customer ways to find a solution for the problem through the goods available at Best Buy. Thus, Best Buy changed its overall sales strategy from selling a product to selling its experience.